Pre-Genesis

[Turbo Chalgar]

Lifeworld

[color=#FFCCCC]She took the long way to the medical wing of the station. Victoria hated medical checks, feared even. It was one of the few things she was really afraid of, they made her feel exposed. When you walk to something you dislike time slows down you see a tunnel before you the faces of the people greeting you blur and become old pictures on a wall that's sliding past you, this was exactly the case with her. Fellow colonial pilots walked past her "Hello,Cardamine" , "Slept well Victoria?" , "Care to cover for me today Cardamine" Voices lost somewhere in her synapses filtering only one word - Cardamine. Her nickname, her title that she supposedly defeated an addiction she supposedly couldn't defeat...and she didn't. Putting the mask of ignorance on ones face might be blissful but in fact it's like an old rotting wound - the more you hide it the more it rots. Despite her reluctance to arrive on time for the medical exam she was actually there early...

"Lt. Victoria Lord. Punctual as usual, enter" The medical examiner still in his civilian clothes was sitting behind a big desk. To his left was the examination bed and a small curtain serving as an improvised changing room for the patients. He then went to his locker and pulled a white coat which was covered with variety of washed out stains ranging from dark brown to crimson. To be fair in Victoria's eyes he looked more like a "the Butcher" type bad-guys from old vids than a doctor. The check was quick, he has done it millions of times already, he worked fast if not comfortable for his patients. Only one last thing remaining...

"Here take those you know the drill" He handed a syringe and a small vial to Victoria for blood and urine respectively. She walked in the toilet and quickly filled them with the banks she had hidden on the underside of her coat. Every time she did it she felt like a cheating schoolgirl who didn't do her homework...only the stakes were bigger, meeting with a laser blast in the head instead of meeting the headmaster.

***

Two hours later she was in the briefing room telling crack jokes with the other pilots. The briefing room looked like a lecture theater the walls were adorned with pictures of colonial war machines. All except a small square with gold letters and the colonial seal on top. That was the thing that everyone avoided...On a closer look one could notice that the gold letters form names and right next to the names two dates. Victoria unintentionally looked at it and that got her thinking. Did she really know these guys? Can she even remember their faces, their names, the way they died? It was all so simple in space, your fighter gets blown to bits and you die instantly frozen for the ages or for the recovery team after the battle. Almost like it was the Nyx's who died not the people controlling them.

"And then I say, Frakk you, Sir! I'm going to Alpha alone and I'll come back flying on dead sniffer's arses!"

"Yeah right and you want us to believe that Skalski let that slide?"

"He-he, Cardamine was there, she can confirm!..........Cardamine?"

A voice slowly pulled Victoria out of her dream world. Individual sounds started making sense again. Aaand there was that moment...all of a sudden all of the eyes are set on you as if intent on pulling you out of the dream you are into while in fact they just expect an answer you don't have.

"I'm sorry I wasn't listening"

"Of with your dream boyfriend again?" Quinn shot the stupid punch line which regrettably had all the people in the room laughing like a kid smoking synth marijuana for the first time.

"At least we have something in common Quinn, we both like men" Victoria said with an evil smile on her face which only grew wider as the room exploded with "Oo-ooos" and laughter. Correction they weren't kids smoking synth mary-jane for the first time, they were now laughing like monkeys on cardamine.

"Commander on deck!"

All of the laughter ceased in a nanosecond as if somebody just pressed the mute key. The commander walked in the briefing room and straightened up in front of the pilots.

"At ease. This will be short, standard CAP missions in T-23 today. Garrison, you are with Lord, Quinn...." The voice of the commander slowly became mute to Victoria as she heard what was there to be heard. When the briefing finished the pilots headed to the equipment room where they get their flight suits and prepare for another 6 hours of no gravity and stray asteroids and death flying as their wingman